I received the gun on Tuesday, but didn't get a chance to shoot it until now. Field stripped it, cleaned and lubed it and took the gun and my wife to the range.

First the gun:

I'm very impressed with the build quality, fit and finish of the gun. My only disappointment was that when I purchased it on Gunbroker, the photo was of one with blue grips. Ditto on the description. But I got black grips. To be fair, the seller hadn't opened the boxes and wasn’t aware that the color wasn’t what he’d promised. He’s promised to either swap grips with me (when he gets extra grips in, somewhere in the 4 to 6 week range) or sell me another set at wholesale. I thought that was fair. But the gun doesn't show as well with the black grips in my opinion.

This is a heavy gun – a lot like a P226 Elite.

The slide doesn't have much play at all in it. Very tight. It's not quite as smooth as an X-five, but it's nice and feels like a quality build.

I tested the trigger pull with a gauge and it gets right at 3 lbs, 7 ounces every time. The trigger pull is smooth, even, and doesn't have creep or mushiness in it. It's a really nice trigger with a really crisp break. And I'm a self-confessed trigger snob. So I’m happy with that.

Magazines seat tightly and eject very well. The stock sights are good, but with my vision issues, I put a Crimson Trace laser on right away. A small issue here, as CT includes an adapter that works on the Shadow 2’s rail, but puts the laser’s activation buttons too far forward to nudge them with a finger when you index and prepare to shoot. No big deal, but I might have to see about 3D printing one up that resolves that issue.

The grip is really, really aggressively textured. Something that I like, but my wife usually doesn’t. Generally the grip seems sized for medium size hands (mine are medium large), but it seemed to work fine for both of us.

So on to the range….

Between my wife and I, we put 60 rounds down range – 6 magazines of 10 rounds each. Obviously the standard mags hold more, but my experience is that it’s better to shoot 10 shots, take a break and reload. Seems to be a bit more fun and less like work.

Not a single FTF or any other issue. Simply a flawless gun right out of the box.

My impressions were that recoil was light, the gun was very accurate and fun to shoot. It seems very quick to get back on target after each shot.

Just to emphasize that point, I decided to post the first 10-round targets that both my wife and I shot on our very first times with the gun. Keep in mind that neither of us had fired any CZ’s before, so we had no experience with a CZ trigger. That said, here are our targets at 7 yards:

Mine - at 7 yards, semi-rapid fire (one shot every second or so):

And my wife's at the same distance. I should note that she got even better after putting two magazines through the gun. I'm a very lucky man.

My take is this is a LOT of gun for $1200 or so. I can’t wait to get the laser really dialed in (I think it’s a bit off to the left).

I was trying to avoid buying one of these, but the temptation is REAL. I have the previous gen Shadow and that gun shoots like a laser.My curiosity is going to get the best of me shelling out the money for this new model.

I went down to my LGS this morning because they are running a sale on .22LR ammo. While I was there I decided to check out their pistol selection. Nothing really grabbed my attention. I casually mentioned that I wouldn't mind checking out a new CZ Shadow 2 if they ever got one in. The owner then tells me that UPS just dropped one off. He gets it from the back storeroom and tells me that he has a waiting list if it has blue grips. I open the case and it has black grips. Score. I walk out with it for $1100.

Originally posted by 45ProCarry:I went down to my LGS this morning because they are running a sale on .22LR ammo. While I was there I decided to check out their pistol selection. Nothing really grabbed my attention. I casually mentioned that I wouldn't mind checking out a new CZ Shadow 2 if they ever got one in. The owner then tells me that UPS just dropped one off. He gets it from the back storeroom and tells me that he has a waiting list if it has blue grips. I open the case and it has black grips. Score. I walk out with it for $1100.

It is a damn nice pistol.

That's a good price. I paid $1179 and CZ Custom is charging $1300. I think the higher pricing is who wants to have it first.

The blue griped ones are for the Nitride coating and nickel magazines. What I learned is that even the Polycoat ones are nitrided. It is suspect that the nitride only ones require better surface finish/frame selection (since they are investment cast) so the increased cost (plus the nickel mags are @$20 more each and there are three mags to a weapon).

Originally posted by motoboy:[QUOTE]Originally posted by Swpre18:Congrats, beautiful! I like the look of blacks grips more from your picture, maybe its the color of that blue in the original post that does seem as striking as it would in person.

Ya the pic I originally posted made them look kind of washed out. I have not seen the blue grips yet but personally I think they would look pretty cool !